mostly recipes, but I usually add lib spices and extracts - it can either work really well- a box of crushed kumquats in the boiler along with belgian candi and a trappist yeast made one of my favorite beers of all time, other times not so much. If I follow a standard recipe, I can get what the recipe is going for, but I like to try for stuff that I can't buy and my imagination often gets the better of me.
See that is the wonders of homebrewing. Experiment and be imaginative. For me though I'm still going mainly off of recipes or lately I have been trying to compile my own.
